Cashen's Mission Reports [With Pictures]

[Cashen]

Hello everyone! I've been playing KSP since about 0.17 or so, and found it highly addictive. I got out of the game around 0.19 and just got back into it again. I've decided to do a fresh start from scratch with a fairly heavily modified KSP, and post mission logs with details as I progress through the game.

Here's a list of mods I have installed:

• MechJeb 2.0.8
  
• KW Rocketry 2.4
  
• NovaPunch 1.5 (Still works in .20)
  
• FusTek Station Parts
  
• B9 Aerospace
  
• Kerbal Alarm Clock
  
• Protractor 2.4.1
  
• ISA Mapsat dev x4-r1
  
• Kethane Pack 0.5.1
  
• H.O.M.E 1.0.3
  
• Crew Manifest 0.5.4.0
  

Here are the rules that I've set out for myself in doing these missions:

• No use of MechJeb autopilots. All manuvers will be manual, though MechJeb will be used to create accurate maneuver nodes, as well as directional assistance during ascents and landings, and to display information about the craft and its movement/orbits.
  
• CrewManifest will be in permanent death mode, meaning that, God forbid, one of the Kerbals is killed, they cannot be used again in subsequent missions. Yes, even Jeb. This means I will have to be extra careful with manned missions.
  
• Minimal use of quicksaves. Only in cases where the game crashes/glitches. Mistakes that I make on my own will have to stand.
  

I will try to update with new missions every few days or so, depending on how much time I have and the length of the missions. We'll be starting off small and then working out, with a heavy emphasis on manned missions later on, after appropriate testing of hardware.

MISSION LIST:

Vulpes 1: Unmanned orbital attempt (Failure)

Vulpes 2: Unmanned orbit (Success)

Vulpes 3: First manned orbit (Success)

Canis 1: Put Coyote Surveyor Probe in orbit around Kerbin (Success)

Canis 2: Put Coyote Surveyor Probe in orbit around Mun (Success)

Canis 3: Put Coyote Surveyor Probe in orbit around Minmus (Success)

Vulpes 4: Unmanned landing on Mun (Success)

Vulpes 5 (Part 1, 2): Manned mission to Mun (Success)

Vulpes 6: Manned launch, orbit and orbital refueling of Flying Fox SSTO Spaceplane. First orbital rendezvous and docking. (Success)

Vulpes 7: Manned mission to Minmus. (Success)

KORe Kerbin Outpost (Part 1, 2): Assemble a Kethane Refinery/Space Station in orbit around Kerbin (Success)

Edited July 7, 2013 by Cashen

[Cashen]

We're going to notice a few naming conventions I have for my craft and missions. I've decided to give them names after various species of canines. Manned missions, or unmanned test-flights of manned vehicles, will go by the name Vulpes (Latin for foxes, one of the two large subgroups within the Canidae family) and unmanned flights such as probes and satellites will go by Canis (the other subgroup).

The vehicles themselves will follow a similar convention. Manned orbital spacecraft will go by Vixen (female fox) and manned landers will go by Reynard (male fox).

All ascent stages/launch vehicles will go by Lupus (Wolf, fittingly as they are the largest wild canines).

The first goal KSC has set out to do is to get a Kerbal into orbit around Kerbin and return him safely home. So with that comes the development of the first orbital spacecraft, the Vixen Mk1, and the first launch vehicle, the Lupus I-A. Since this will eventually me a manned spacecraft, safety is important, so first KSC engineers test the launch escape system, should something go wrong early in the mission.

Here we see the single-seat command pod with the launch escape system atop.

Firing the solid rocket motors carries the pod a considerable distance and not in a perfectly straight trajectory, useful to get away from an out of control rocket who's engines cannot be shut down.

The launch escape tower separates and crashes into the surface below as the chutes deploy. The test is a success.

KSC engineers get busy designing and building the Vixen Mk1, designed to get one Kerbal into orbit and return to the surface safely. A fairly barebones setup.

Here it sits atop the Lupus I-A. The Roman number refers to the number of boosters (in this case there is only a core, so I is used) and the A refers to the smaller 2.5 meter diameter core. B will refer to the larger 3.75m diameter cores.

MISSION: Vulpes 1

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• Unmammed test flight
  
• First flight of the Vixen Mk1 orbiter and the Lupus I-A launch vehicle.
  
• Achieve a circular, equatorial orbit at an altitude of 80km, and return the capsule safely back to Kerbin.
  

Vulpes 1 sits on the launch pad ready to go, empty capsule atop the stack.

Shortly after launch, clearing the pad.

The first stage separates earlier than expected. The upper stage continues to push to apoapsis. The vehicle is small so has no struts, and as a result is quite wobbly. May need to add struts to the design.

The upper stage burns out sooner than expected as well, leaving Vixen's own engine to finish the job. Unfortunately a circular orbit could not be achieved. MechJeb typically automatically plots a circularization burn node when in autopilot, but does not do so when in guidance mode only. You can see the orbital stats here.

With one of the primary objectives failed, it's decided to terminate the flight before a complete orbit is obtained, and Vixen burns retro until fuel runs out and the capsule separates and begins reentry.

Sadly the parachute stage would not deploy. I've always had issues with the parachute deployment stage. Typically I have them by themselves on Stage 0, and often they will deploy automatically when I release the final decoupler on Stage 1 (which I find rather annoying) but in this case Stage 1 separated automatically when Vixen ran out of fuel, and Stage 0 would not deploy. Obviously, with no chutes, the capsule crashed hard and was destroyed.

Good thing the first flight was unmanned. No Kerbals lost.

Mission Outcome: Failure

Edited June 18, 2013 by Cashen

[Cashen]

MISSION: Vulpes 2

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• Unmanned test flight, repeat of Vulpes 1
  
• Achieve a circular, equatorial orbit at an altitude of 80km, and return the capsule safely back to Kerbin.
  

Lessons learned from the previous mission: The ascent stage needs more fuel to ensure a proper orbit. Struts are required to keep the ascent stable to make the gravity turn easier. MechJeb controls and the battery were relocated to the capsule itself to ensure control is maintained at all times.

Vulpes 2 sits on the pad. The modifications to the orbiter and launcher are apparent. Again the flight is unmanned.

Liftoff and ascent, the craft is much more stable with the struts in place.

This time the ascent stage makes it all the way to apoapsis with enough fuel to complete circularization. I could manually plot a maneuver node to circularize at apoapsis but that takes a little time and often there's only a minute or so between main engine cutoff and apoapsis, so I opted to let MechJeb plot the burn vector and then execute it manually.

The upper stage of the Lupus I-A separates with retro-rocket assistance. I started KSP in the days where debris left in orbit would stay there and clutter the map up, so I learned to design rocket stages that could de-orbit themselves. Thus, the upper stage has a MechJeb control unit on it and enough fuel to de-orbit. I know I could just delete it now, but I kind of like the concept of manually de-orbiting spent stages.

After a correction burn, we see the final orbit, very close to perfectly circular and very close to the target altitude. This phase is a success! You can see the orbit of the spent stage as well

De-orbiting the spent stage as mentioned above.

Here we get a good look at Vixen in orbit. The inclination is only off by half a degree. I'm pretty impressed for a manual orbit.

Vixen burns retro and decouples the capsule in preparation for re-entry.

The chutes deploy with the final decoupler as I mentioned in the last post, so they come out during the re-entry. If anyone can help me figure out how to manually deploy the chutes I would love to know.

Splashdown!

Mission Outcome: Success

[Werwolf]

no batteries. you are out of electricity, so your probe is dead and won't deploy the chute.

[Cashen]

no batteries. you are out of electricity, so your probe is dead and won't deploy the chute.

I had a feeling that was the problem. I checked resources as the pod was coming down and it said I had 50 charge, but I wasn't totally convinced. The second mission relocated a battery to the capsule to avoid that problem. Seems to have worked!

MISSION: Vulpes 3

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First manned flight of Vixen Mk1
  
• Pilot: Jebediah Kerman
  
• Achieve a circular, polar orbit at an altitude of 80km, and return Jebediah and the capsule safely back to Kerbin.
  

KSC engineers have plans for a survey satellite to be launched into a high altitude polar orbit on the mission after this one, and since Vulpes 2 achieved an easier equitorial orbit, it was decided that the first manned flight would take a polar route to determine the difficulty associated with it.

We've seen this flight before. No changes to the vehicle after Vulpes 2, hopefully a repeat of that success, though the orbital path will be different this time around. Jeb seems excited, but are we really surprised?

Jeb is ecstatic as the lower stage separates and the Lupus upper stage approaches MECO.

Circular orbit achieved within a couple of kilometers. The inclination is off a fair bit however. Polar orbits are harder to do manually, it seems. Jeb will have to do some correction burns.

Jeb corrects the inclination and has a view out the capsule window of the north polar region. Later another burn would re-circularize the orbit.

After three polar orbits, Jeb is ready to bring Vixen back down, and burns retro, aiming for a land touchdown in a desert area of Kerbin.

This time the engine and fuel tanks are kept on during re-entry.

Capsule separation takes place after the hardest part of re-entry, the chutes deploy as the rest of Vixen hurtles to crash-land in the desert.

Jeb makes a successful landing and gets out to stretch his legs!

Mission Outcome: Success

[Cashen]

MISSION: Canis 1

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First flight of the Coyote Surveyor Probe and the Lupus I-B launch vehicle.
  
• Achieve a circular, polar orbit at an altitude of 141.8 km (+/- 1.2km) around Kerbin.
  
• Map Kerbin completely using an ISA MapSat dish.
  
• Locate Kethane deposits using a KE-S110 Medium Survey Unit.
  

After achieving a successful manned orbit, KSC mission planners set their sights on developing a probe to map celestial bodies in the Kerbol system, prior to any manned missions, to locate points of interest, potential good landing sites, and to advance their understanding of the solar system. In addition, discovering deposits of the mysterious substance Kethane is part of the mission profile. A probe is developed to accomplish all of these tasks, and its first flight is to be placed in a suitable orbit around Kerbin.

Here we see the Coyote Surveyor Probe prior to being fitted into its launch vehicle. Equipped with 2 Gigantor XL Solar arrays for primary power, two Z-500 and four Z-400 rechargable batteries to maintain power when behind Kerbin, and 4 PB-NUK RTGs for backup power, this probe is meant to survive indefinitely in space. In addition to the two primary mapping devices it's also equipped with temperature and gravitational field sensors, a protractor unit (probably not necessary) and a MechJeb control module.

Since the orbit is much higher than the previous missions, a larger launch vehicle is designed specifically for this mission, the Lupus I-B, and the probe is placed inside a fairing for protection.

The heavier launch vehicle lifts off, far slower than the smaller Lupus I-A

The lower stage burns out and is ejected with retro-rockets, and simultaneously the fairing plates are jettisoned past the dense, lower atmosphere.

Several correction burns were needed to get the desired orbit, and without the torque motors of a command pot, the vehicle used up RCS fuel very quickly oritenting itself for the proper burns. The final burn, an inclination adjustment, used up all remaining RCS fuel, and after separation had to use main engine gimbaling to orient itself for de-orbit burning. Nevertheless, Coyote was placed nearly exactly where it was supposed to go!

After two days in orbit (I left the game running as I did other things for several hours, on 10x time acceleration), the probe has completed its mission, having mapped Kerbin!

Mission Outcome: Success

[Cashen]

MISSION: Canis 2

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First night launch.
  
• First flight of the Lupus II.
  
• First mission past Kerbin orbit.
  
• Put a Coyote Surveyor probe in a circular, polar orbit around Mun, at an altitude of 62.4km (+/- 1.6km) and fully map the surface.
  

To get past Kerbin orbit we need a still larger launch vehicle. KSC engineers basically take the Lupus I-B, make the upper stage a little smaller and strap on a pair of boosters, each of which more powerful than the Lupus I-A. Fuel lines ensure the core will be full when the boosters separate. This launch will take place at night, and you can see Mun in the background.

Liftoff, all engines firing!

Booster separation with solid rocket assist to push the spent boosters away.

Orbit it successful, but there is a hiccup, as the larger upper RCS tank had been disabled to ensure it was full when the upper stage is discarded. Unfortunately the smaller tanks ran out right before circularization so the burn was late and Kerbin orbit was not circular. Lesson learned: Don't disable the RCS tanks, just do manual transfers before stage separation. In any case, the orbital insertion stage separates and will retro-burn to de-orbit itself. Coyote has been fitted with its own engine and fuel tank to get the rest of the way. This stage with its nuclear engine is very overpowered, but this design is meant to eventually do interplanetary missions.

Nuke engines burn for Munar injection.

Since we are aiming for a polar orbit, after the direct burn, there's a correction burn out of the orbital plane to approach Mun from above.

Coyote reaches the Mun as planned. Another inclination adjustment followed by a pair or burns to get a circular orbit at the right altitude for Mapsat to get a complete map.

Ejecting the final stage once Coyote is in the right spot. The insertion stage would retro-burn and crash into Mun.

Another successful survey!

Mission Outcome: Success

Edited June 20, 2013 by Cashen

[Cashen]

MISSION: Canis 3

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• Place a Coyote Surveyor Probe in a circular, polar orbit around Minmus
  

We've seen this mission profile before. The final step in mapping the Kerbin system, before mission planners begin to look at more advanced missions. The next goal will be developing a lander and rover to complete manned missions to both of Kerbin's moons. So, let's get going!

The standard Lupus II launch vehicle. We'll be seeing this one a lot for a little while as the engineers plan to use it for the manned Mun and Minmus missions. Interplanetary missions will require a still heavier launcher.

Launch goes perfectly, nice and smooth, no hiccups unlike the Mun mission. Circularization, injection burn, and then an inclination correction at the descending node get an encounter with Minmus. As someone who was spoiled with MechJeb for a long time, it's kind of satisfying to do the burns and controls manually, even if I'm still using the additional data MechJeb provides.

Approaching Minmus as planned.

Strangely, in spite of researching the proper altitude to set the probe at, I seemed to have hit a resonance with Minmus' rotation, which means there are some small gaps in the map. I'm not a perfectionist, the map is good enough for practical purposes. I consider this mission a success.

Mission Outcome: Success

Edited June 21, 2013 by Cashen

[Cashen]

So, the mapping missions of the Kerbin system are complete. The next step is placing Kerbals on the moons. First though, we need to develop the hardware to do that with. Introducing the first iteration of a manned lander, the Reynard Mk1.

After considering the mission profiles that could get to either moon and back, the decided approach is as follows in terms of vehicle design:

• Standard Lupus II ascent stage to get to apoapsis, or most of the way there.
  
• A heavier upper stage to complete the burn to apoapsis, circularize, moon injection burn, moon capture burn, and the de-orbit burn, before being discarded to crash into the surface.
  
• A "direct ascent" style lander that will complete the landing, and be able to launch from either moon and return to Kerbin.
  

The fully assembled vehicle looks like this:

MISSION: Vulpes 4

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First flight of the Reynard Mk1 Moon Lander
  
• Unmanned test flight
  
• Land unmanned on Mun and return to Kerbin safely
  

Remember that I have permanent death mode on. So this will be an unmanned dress rehearsal of a Mun landing. I've not had much success with manual landings on Mun, so I want to see if I can even do it first before risking Jeb & company.

Liftoff goes smoothly and so does orbital insertion. Here we see the Munar injection. I often use MechJeb's plotting of maneuver nodes just to get the positioning of the burn right, and then manually adjust the node to get the actual trajectory I want.

Successful Munar capture. At this point, unlike the satellite missions, I don't much care about the quality of the orbit.

The two manually placed landing nodes. Aiming for a crater. This is the crater with a high concentration of anomalies picked up by MapSat and will be a likely landing spot for the manned mission.

Braking burn, getting ready to land. The upper stage has been discarded to crash into the surface.

SUCCESS! I was very happy with myself after this.

Since the lander was unmanned, there wasn't much to do but take off again and head back to Kerbin.

Obligatory re-entry picture.

Lander stage discarded to crash into the ocean, chutes deploy on the capsule.

Splashdown!

Mission Outcome: Success

[tntristan12]

Very inspiring work! I like that the mission reports are very technical. Good job.

[Cashen]

It's time for that first giant leap.

MISSION: Vulpes 5

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First attempt at a manned landing on Mun
  
• Two-launch mission, first a manned Reynard Mk1 launched atop a Lupus II, followed by an unmanned launch of a Fennec rover atop another Lupus II
  
• Crew: Jebediah and Bob Kerman
  
• Land on Mun, explore, and eventually return to Kerbin
  

The most technically challenging mission to date. It involved a lot more behind the scenes testing to develop the Fennec rover. I decided to make it out of mostly stock parts instead of using a complete mod rover, because I wanted the satisfaction of having built it. We'll see it in a little more detail later. The manned launch is first, the Rover is planned to join them later.

Vulpes 5 on the pad, waiting for launch.

Liftoff!

Discarding the spent boosters just 36 seconds later.

Discarding the ascent stage. The upper stage will take Bob and Jeb all the way to Mun.

Jeb takes a moment to admire Kerbin below. This is his second orbital flight, and only the second manned flight ever.

Bob's view isn't quite as spectacular.

Jeb's view as they arrive at Mun and prepare to burn retro into an orbit. By now Fennec has launched as has completed its Munar injection burn, and will arrive a few hours after the landing.

The spacecraft close-up solar panels deployed, before the de-orbit burn.

Killing horizontal velocity prior to landing in a large crater.

The landing is successful!

Jeb's view after landing, shortly before getting out to set foot on Mun

Jeb and Bob plant the KSC flag on Mun. Both of them look so happy!

Here we see Fennec de-orbiting above the landing site. It's manuvering stage is, like Coyote's, over sized in anticipation of doing interplanetary missions eventually.

Manuver stage jettisoned, Fennec will land with a sky-crane. This was honestly much harder than landing Bob and Jeb.

Skycrane detaches and drops Fennec onto the surface. You can see it landed several kilometers away, but Fennec is a dual-purpose (manned and unmanned) rover and will drive on its own to the landing site.

Bob and Jeb climb aboard and get ready to explore! Fennec is equipped with an ISA GPS unit, a small Kethane scanner, as well as the usual stock science equipment, all of which is powered by 7 RTGs to provide indefinite power, day or night.

Mission Status: Ongoing

[Cashen]

MISSION: Vulpes 5 (Continued)

Rather than just land, plant the flag and go home to prove it could be done, Bob and Jeb decide to go exploring a little, testing out Fennec rover.

The boys landed pretty close to the Armstrong Memorial, and so stopped to take a photo, with Bob standing on top.

They then continued south out of the crater, towards another anomaly that ISA Mapsat had detected.

Getting further from the landing site. On level ground, Fennec does pretty well. Here they are climbing out of the crater. Typically on Mun the rover seems limited to about 5 m/s otherwise it can become unstable on rough ground. Physical time acceleration was used a lot to go any meaningful distance.

Drove past a small crater along the way. You can see they are quite far from the landing site.

There's a monolith in the middle of this large crater that Bob and Jeb are driving into. I forgot to snap a picture of it, though.

Darkness fell on the way back so the boys camped out. In spite of the headlights, Fennec can't see that well at night (Mun is so dark) and I'd rather not risk driving off a cliff edge or flipping over, so I had them park and wait until day break. Here they are on their way back to Reynard.

Having made it back, it's time to head home. Fennec will be parked here at the landing site and left behind.

Blasting off of Mun's surface for the return trip to Kerbin.

Jeb gets one last look at their landing site while establishing orbit.

Reynard about half way back from Mun.

Quite a sight that must be for the boys.

Reynard's solar panels were left extended during re-entry. Here we can see them breaking off under aerodynamic stress.

Chutes deploy as the landing capsule separates from the service module, which will crash into the ocean.

The boys splash down, the mission complete!

Mission Outcome: Success

[Cashen]

KSC has clearly defined some long-term goals for its program. The primary one is long-term exploration and colinization of the Jool system, primarily Laythe, using in-situ resource utilization (Kethane) as a means to support the missions. Given that there have only been two manned flights so far, and Mun is the only body that's been landed on, there are some stepping stones along the way:

• Develop a multi-role Spaceplane capable of the following:
  
• Able to reach Kerbin orbit (and hence, Laythe orbit as well) in a single stage.
  
• Able to act as an exploration jet and rover while on Laythe (where conventional land-based rovers are limiting, due to the island nature of Laythe)
  
• Develop the technology and ability to refuel the Spaceplane either in oribt or while it is on the ground.
  
• Develop orbital Kethane refining, refueling and exploration stations (Space stations). First at Kerbin and then eventually Laythe.
  
• Develop the technology to mine and transport Kethane to the stations. A likely target for the Kerbin station is Minmus
  
• To that end, the next manned mission to another celestial body will be to Minmus, with a similar profile to the earlier Mun mission, with the added goal of finding and mapping a suitable Kethane deposit (preferably on a flat salt lake and near the near the equator. Minmus has already been mapped, so should be easy)
  
• It is forseen as unlikely that Kethane deposits would appear under land on Laythe due to the small amount of land. It may be possible to transport Kethane from Vall instead.
  
• Continue with the Coyote Surveyor Project to map important bodies in the Kerbol system. Each upcoming interplanetary transfer window will have a launch of Coyote probes to do just that.
  

Back to the present: We've seen Jeb and Bob do some missions, but what has Bill been up to? Well, if Jeb is the daredevil rocket pilot in this group, Bill is the aircraft pilot, and Bill has been hard at work alongside KSC engineers to develop a SSTO Spaceplane, the Flying Fox.

MISSION: Vulpes 6

Mission Outline and Objectives:

• Dual launch mission:
  
• Launch 1: First flight of the Flying Fox SSTO Spaceplane
  
• Launch 2: First flight of the Lupis IV Launch Vehicle & Bulldog Mk1 Refueler
  
• Put Flying Fox into a stable orbit above Kerbin, as close to circular, equitorial, and at 80km as possible
  
• Launch Bulldog into a higher orbit, between 105 and 110km
  
• First rendezvous and docking attempt
  
• Have bulldog refuel Flying Fox in orbit (Liquid fuel only, just enough oxidizer to deorbit)
  
• Flying Fox will attempt a powered landing as close to KSC as possible, but not on the runway
  
• Flying Fox will then drive, using rover wheels, the remaining distance to KSC, in order to test rover functionality.
  
• Deorbit and land Bulldog and its crew.
  

Crew:

• Bill Kerman in Flying Fox
  
• Bob Kerman and Danbles Kerman in Bulldog
  

After many iterations and test-flights, Bill and the KSC engineers have settled on this design for their SSTO SpacePlane, the Flying Fox. Dual turbojet engines, it carries 810 units of liquid fuel and 990 units of oxidizer and a single LV-T30 liquid fueled rocket engine. It also contains a pair of rover wheels that can be used when the front landing gear are retracted, to allow it to drive around on the surface. The complete host of scientific equipment, plus a small Kethane scanner (the same suite of tools the Fennec rover carries) are included to support function as a surface rover. An in-line docking port will facilitate refueling.

Dual launch mission. Here, Flying Fox prepares for takeoff while Bulldog sits atop a Lupus IV on the launch pad.

A closer look at the refueler. The Lupus IV is the first of the Lupus series launch vehicles to employ Asparagus Staging, jettisoning the boosters in successive pairs. Note that Bulldog has a crew capacity of 3, but is only crewed by 2 people. An empty seat is left for Bill should, for whatever reason, re-entry with Flying Fox not be possible (such as a collision in space that damages the plane).

Bill takes off with Flying Fox and takes a nose-up attitude, 45 degrees, gear up. Fully fueled, Flying Fox weighs just over 18 tons.

Once above 10km, pitch angle reduced to 30 degrees to get more speed in the atmosphere. Once intake air dropped to 0.15, the LV-T30 engine was fired. Rocket and jet engines both firing until intake air dropped to 0.10.

Jet engines shut down and intakes closed, pitch increased back to 45 degrees as Flying Fox attempts to get out of the dense lower atmosphere.

Stable orbit achieved with just 5 seconds of burn time left. Just under 31 units of liquid fuel remains, plus 132 units of oxidizer. The oxidizer is sufficient for a de-orbit burn, but Bulldog will fill the liquid fuel tanks back up.

Bulldog launches. First booster pair separation.

Bulldog gets to an orbit at 105km, then transfers down to match orbits with Flying Fox, and rendezvous and docking is successful. Fuel is transferred to fill Flying Fox's tanks, and the docked craft orbits several times to wait for sunrise as KSC. I found it easier to get into a different orbit and then do a transfer down to the other craft easier than trying to launch straight into a rendezvous situation. It doesn't take much delta-v to change orbits either.

Another view of the docked craft. The actual docking took place at night, and was my first manual docking. Admittedly, I did use MechJeb's Smart A.S.S., particularly the relative velocity vectors and the target paralell vectors, but the RCS manuvering and actual docking was manual. My first try, and it worked well.

Flying Fox undocks and re-enters over KSC. The angle was mis-judged and Bill overflew the space center, requiring a 180 degree turn once stable flight was achieved. A good test of the craft's maneuverability.

Coming in for a landing near KSC.

Almost there! The decision to land full of liquid fuel but empty oxidizer was to test the landing abilities in a realistic scenario. On Laythe, the craft would come in fully fueled and ready to explore, but would refill oxidizer before heading back to orbit to save weight while in the atmosphere. In theory it could also come in light fuel and refuel that on the surface as well. I had originally envisioned orbital refueling only, meaning it would have to carry a full load of oxidizer, but I didn't want to risk it getting stranded somewhere without the ability to make it back to orbit, plus lugging around oxidizer when exploring would probably shorten its range.

Landing is successful. I had considered adding deceleration parachutes but they appear to be unnecessary, even with an almost full load of fuel.

The rover wheels work well. On flat ground it can reach nearly 20m/s with no threats to tipping over when turning. Very stable. The wheels however are unable to handle even gentle upward slopes for even a short distance (such as getting onto the runway from the ground below), but this can be overcome with gentle pushes from the jet engines.

And of course Bulldog de-orbits and the capsule lands safely.

Mission Outcome: Success

Edited July 3, 2013 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Mission: Vulpes 7

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First manned mission to Minmus
  
• Dual launch mission; manned Reynard Mk1 lander followed by Fennec rover
  
• Land on Minmus, explore using the rover, paying special attention to Kethane deposits
  
• Return safely to Kerbin
  
• Crew: Jebediah and Bob Kermin (Same crew as Vulpes 5)
  

I'm starting to take screenshots without the GUI visible, since I think they're aesthetically more pleasing. Essentially the exact same mission package as Vulpes 5, the mission to Mun. This should be a familiar sight by now:

Not bothering to post pics of the ascent or orbit. We've all seen that by now, and I'm getting rather good at it. Here we see the transfer to Minmus.

Not long after, Fennec is ready to launch. The Lupus series launch vehicles are damn reliable. Also note that you can see Minmus in the sky now.

Fennec's Nuke engine doing the Minmus transfer burn.

Jeb gets a nice view of Kerbin while on the way to Minmus.

Arrival at Minmus.

Jeb's view as they approach the de-orbit burn. A landing site has been selected on top of an equatorial kethane deposit that the Coyote probe had detected during its mission.

Fennec approaching Minmus around the same time.

I forgot to take into account Minmus' rotation when plotting my de-orbit and braking burns, so the kethane deposit rotated out from under me by a few kilometers. Here we see the final approach.

Landing is a success. Landing on Minmus is predictably easier than Mun. The obligatory flag is planted. They then get back inside the lander and wait until morning before starting the exploration phase.

Fennec lands without incident about 5 kilometers away, and the boys climb aboard to do some exploring. Jeb sits up front to drive while Bob works the instrumentation in the rear seat.

Heading due east, they drive over the Kethane deposit, which begins on flat ground and continues over this ridge. It's not a very large deposit, only 110,000L or so.

Fennec handles much differently on Minmus than it did on Mun. On flat terrain it can go all the way to maximum speed (around 15m/s) without issue, so long as it moves in a straight line. Hills are a different story. While on Mun, it could go 5m/s over almost all terrain, it had to take this hill much slower.

Coming down the other side.

A little too much speed and air at the bottom caused Fennec to roll several times and both Bob and Jeb were ejected. Low gravity means the guys weren't hurt and Fennec thankfully landed wheels up.

Unlike Mun, where I had the boys wait out the night because the terrain is so dark, on Minmus they are able to keep driving as the surface is lighter. Here they stop and admire Kerbin rising above the horizon. Kerbin remained directly overhead during the Vulpes 5 mission because Mun is tidally locked, but Minmus rotates so they got a nice view. Note Mun visible in the sky as well.

During the night they head back to the lander, with nearly a full day's exploration under their belts. This will not be the last mission to Minmus, if plans to utilize its kethane reserves come to fruition. As with the Mun mission, Fennec is to be left behind.

Lifting off at night. Not a problem.

The return trajectory to Kerbin had them coming in on a highly inclined orbit, as here the south pole is visible. I noticed shortly after taking this photo that their trajectory would take them very close to KSC.

KSC visible in the background as Reynard burns its last remaining fuel to quicken the descent. Note Minmus in the background.

Another successful mission.

Mission Outcome: Success

Edited July 6, 2013 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Mission: KORe Kerbin Outpost

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• Assemble the KORe (Kethane Orbital Refinery) Outpost in a circular, equitorial orbit above Kerbin at an altitude of 125km
  
• KORe will be designed to process Kethane into various rocket propellants, and be able to store large amounts of raw Kethane as well as finished fuels.
  
• It will also have a large crew capacity and many docking ports for spacecraft to dock with, effectively becoming a forward operations base in orbit for future missions.
  

The largest and most complex mission profile to date, consisting of six launches: A core module, a refinery module, a power module, two habitat modules and an air-lock module. All of which would be put in orbit by Lupis IV ascent stages (except the smaller air-lock module, which rode above a Lupus II).

The core module sitting on the pad.

Launching the core module.

Special care was taken in placing the core module in orbit. It was placed at exactly 125km, with inclination and eccentricity both exactly zero. This took several orbits to complete and involved using RCS for minor orbital tweaks. If this module could be placed perfectly, the rest is just building around it.

Next, the refinery module. For this, there's a large spherical kethane tank that will hold 96,000L, and a large propellent tank. Between them is a heavy-duty kethane converter. The smaller tank is an RCS fuel tank.

The core module with the refinery module attached.

Next, the power module, with six large solar arrays, and a crazy amount of batteries. The kethane converter will eat electrical power like crazy, so the station's electrical system has to be ready to provide juice, day or night.

Next, the two habitat modules. When finished, KORe will have a total capacity of a staggering 37 Kerbals.

KORe with the power module and the first of two habitat modules installed.

The last module, the small air-lock module to allow Kerbals to go on EVA.

Docking the final piece.

Ta-da!

Sadly my framerate goes down the toilet anywhere near the station, but I guess I'll have to learn to live with that. Outposts at other planets will be made smaller, since they won't have the same workload as this one. Now let's admire this piece of work in several photos. The station isn't crewed yet and the tanks are all mostly empty, but assembly is complete.

Next post, we'll commission the station and put some Kerbals in it.

Mission Status: Ongoing

Edited July 7, 2013 by Cashen

[Cashen]

KORe Commissioning Phase (Continued from previous post)

Now that KORe is up and running, it's time to put some Kerbals in it. And to do that we have two brand new spacecraft designed for specific purposes.

First we have the Shepherd MORV (Multi Role Orbital Vehicle). Shepherd is kind of like Bulldog from the SSTO Spaceplane mission. Shepherd's specs are the following:

• Capacity: 7 (3 flight crew, 4 passengers)
  
• An orbital tug for craft in the Kerbin system
  
• Orbital refueler, should any craft run out of fuel
  
• A rescue craft, should any unlucky Kerbals require it.
  

A fairly large craft with a large fuel tank and a small Nuke engine gives it a tremendous amount of delta-v and therefore a long range, but its fuel tank was made large in order to do orbital refueling (For example, refueling Flying Fox as per the Vulpes 6 mission). Primarily its a safety feature, to have a versatile craft permanently in orbit. It was never designed to land anywhere, so it will never leave space. Anyway, here it is, the first mission to crew the KORe Outpost, filled to the brim with 7 Kerbals, standing atop the trusty Lupus IV launch vehicle.

Launch goes well, and here we are in orbit, with the upper ascent stage still attached.

Approaching KORe for a night docking.

Ejecting the upper stage prior to docking. I found the extra weight made RCS maneuver quite difficult, and there was only a small amount of fuel left anyway. That upper stage would be manually de-orbited later.

The view out the front prior to docking.

Docking is successful and the crew transfer to the station and bring it online for the first time.

Look how happy Danbles is!

Wiley Kerman goes on EVA to access the refinery control pod to check out its systems and in anticipation of getting some kethane to refine.

Now it's time for the second vehicle to make its debut. Now that Shepherd is up there in case of emergencies, the primary workhorse for moving Kerbals around can make its first flight. The Greyhound SSTO CTV (Crew Transport Vehicle) is a fully reusable SSTO rocket designed to get up to KORe, transfer crew, and then return to land on Kerbin multiple times. With a capacity of 7 Kerbals, and powered by 8 turbojet engines and a large bank of three high-thrust rockets, it took many unmanned test flights to get this to work properly. Here's what it looks like, and who's riding on-board:

Lifting off and turning under jet assistance.

Three rocket engines firing.

Coasting on orbit. Here's a good view of the propulsion system. I believe that's one of the NovaPunch rockets. I really like some of the mods (KW Rocketry in particular) for the aesthetics of their parts, giving a much more streamlined appearance. The jet engines and intakes are from the B9 Aerospace pack. As long as the parts are balanced with respect to the stock parts, I don't mind using them.

Both craft docked to the station. In normal circumstances Greyhound will remain docked to the station as a lifeboat in case people need to leave. Re-entry and landing hasn't been tested yet so I may do an unmanned landing test later.

The view of the station from inside Greyhound's command pod.

Both of these designs will eventually be employed in a much later colonization of Laythe, but that's still quite a long ways off yet. Stay tuned, as in the next mission we'll go get some Kethane for this station to process, and do a little more exploration of Minmus!

Mission Outcome: Success

[Cashen]

Mission: Vulpes 8

Mission Outline and Objectives:

• First flight of the Lupus VI ascent stage.
  
• First flight of the Jackal KETV (Kethane Extraction and Transport Vehicle)
  
• Launch to Minmus, extract a batch of Kethane from the reservoir Jebediah and Bob landed near, and return it to KORe for processing.
  

Jackal is probably my favourite vehicle I've made so far. It has capacity for 64,000L of kethane, and its fuel tanks and engines are designed to deliver just enough thrust to weight to get off of Minmus with a full load. This craft is purpose designed to get Kethane from Minmus with minimal delta-v expendature, and to haul large batches. And it sits atop the largest ascent stage I've made yet, the Lupus VI with its six asparagus staged boosters. Let's take a moment and just watch the ascent.

Now we're in orbit. Time to go to Minmus!

Note that's Bob and Jeb's original landing site below. I know they landed a few kilometers west of the Kethane reservoir, Desdrin uses their flag marker to judge the landing. Once the Kethane detector starts going off, they kill lateral velocity and settle in for a vertical descent.

It's night when they land, but they land on top of the Kethane reservoir that holds just under 110,000L of the stuff. Jackal will be able to extract well over half of this reservoir in one go, effectively depleting it, unless I feel like going for a partial batch someday.

A thought occurs to Desdrin and Shelsy: The old Fennec rover Bob and Jeb used is still at their landing site, fully operational. They can use it to survey future landing sites on top of other reserves nearby. Mission planners back on Kerbin accept these opportunity goals, and Fennec is commanded to drive over.

DAY ONE ON THE SURFACE

Desdrin and Shelsy sleep off the rest of the night. The Kethane drills need electrical power so will have to wait for the sun to appear. When it does, they get to work. They extract the full 64,000L of Kethane by about mid-day.

Once Jackal is full (and much, much heavier), the two of them get out and go due north towards a large Kethane reserve Coyote had spotted while in orbit. Jackal was never designed for the crew to leave, and so has no ladder, but by chance, the height of the door is just about the height of a jump on Minmus, so getting back in requires just a little RCS assistance.

A steep hill to climb, but Fennec handles it no problem. 25 degree upward pitch. Note Kerbin and Mun in the background.

The top of the plateau appears abruptly and Desdrin and Shelsy wipe out and are thrown free. Fennec lands wheels down. They dust themselves off and carry on.

The scanner says there should be a large Kethane reservoir in the bottom of this valley.

Nearly 30 degrees down pitch on the way down, Fennec is able to hold a safe speed. They're more careful at the bottom to avoid crashing.

They reach the deposit, and it's a large one indeed. Enough for six, and not quite seven full loads for Jackal. They plant a marker at the southern edge of the deposit, naming it after Desdrin, as a guide for landing in the future.

As the sun gets low in the sky, they continue more or less straight west to the other deposit.

A small deposit is discovered in the unmapped space between the two large ones. Just large enough for a single load. They drive right through it, but opt not to stop and mark it, since they only carry one flag each.

Shortly thereafter, the pair decided to stop and rest for the night.

DAY TWO ON THE SURFACE

Early in the morning on day 2, they find the other large reservoir. Shelsy plants his flag at the far western edge as a landing marker, naming the deposit after himself as Desdrin did for the previous deposit.

This deposit is also large enough for six full loads, like the last one, but with a smaller 'remainder'. Now, it's back to the lander.

Very carefully over this ridge, and down through that valley, and there's flat ground again.

Fennec was limited to between 4 and 6 m/s through most of the rugged terrain, but on flat ground can do 15 m/s no problem.

Their path back takes them past the original landing site, and they stop to read Bob and Jeb's plaque.

Jackal landed just 1.8km away.

Shelsy went in and grabbed another flag to plant on their landing site, and retroactively named the reserve in honour of Bob and Jeb.

Jackal takes off. I've never seen a craft struggle to leave Minmus as much as this one did. But I knew it would. I did a manual thrust-to-weight calculation using the vessel's fully loaded mass and Minmus' acceleration due to gravity, and it has a TWR of around 1.2. The real question is would the original fuel load be enough. Not that it would matter - in case of an emergency, Jackal is equipped with a pair of small converters and can thus make its own fuel if needed.

Passing over the ridge Bob and Jeb explored previously.

They make it back to Kerbin. Since we're going for a docking at KORe and not a landing, they plot an aerobrake maneuver to save fuel.

Passing periapsis, just under 35km. After this, a plane change burn followed by an adjustment to periapsis (around 42km) for a second aerobrake pass, gave them an apoapsis of around 250km. Then, lifting the periapsis to around 150km.

It turns out they didn't have enough fuel. Just barely. So a small amount of Kethane (about 1,500L) had to be turned into fuel and oxidizer to make the rendezvous happen, but it did.

Night docking is successful. Kethane is transferred and the conversion process carries on as expected. The full load of Kethane is turned into monopropellent (enough to fill all tanks) and the remainder split between liquid fuel and oxidizer.

Also of note, KORe's power module has more than adequate battery storage to maintain full conversion of Kethane for the entire time KORe is on the dark side of Kerbin.

Mission Outcome: Success

This marks the end of an era so to speak. The Kerbin missions are more or less complete. Further Kethane missions to Minmus will not be given special designation as they become more routine. In fact, KSC mission planners announce that the Vulpes and Canis designations will be retired. In the future, missions will be grouped together as specific projects, regardless of the actual mission profile. Future interplanetary missions for the Coyote survey probe will be grouped together as Project Latrans. Manned missions to Duna, the Jool system and possibly Eve will be given their own project names when they are properly announced.

Breaking character a moment, I spent the last few minutes thinking about what I should do with respect to the upcoming 0.21 update. For the time being I've disabled the auto-update in Steam. There are some things I don't much care for about my save-game (KORe is too big and laggy, hard to use) but this last mission to Minmus was my favourite thing yet in KSP. I'm still undecided if I want to start from scratch, though.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Oops.

So, bad news guys. I accidentally did the old bone-headed move of hitting the "End Flight" button while on my space station, which deleted it and the three craft docked to it.

So I think that safely ends this thread and the missions to go along with it.

However it's not all bad news. The station was too large and laggy and I had terribly FPS. Had I not deleted it, I was planning to break it apart and rearrange it to make it much smaller, and keep the parts that would only actually be useful. Also in the future I think I will have two smaller stations, a refinery around Minmus and a refueling/crew transfer station at Kerbin, with a new vehicle specifically to transport fuel back from Minmus (This is what I had envisioned for a Laythe/Vall setup down the road anyway). Plus I could redesign Jackal with less delta-v requirements if it just needs to get to Minmus orbit from the surface.

Also I think I will abandon the mission format I have now with the success/failure part and concentrate more on telling a good story, and having the missions be more project oriented like I had started to do towards the end of this.

I may also wait for the 0.21 update before starting again in earnest. Wonder how many mods it will break. In any case I hope you enjoyed this little thread and you'll definitely see more from me at some point!

[sumghai]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your mission reports, as there was a clear procession from early orbital flights to planetary landings and space stations (a la Mercury->Gemini->Apollo->Skylab).

Nice use of the FusTek Station Parts Expansion, too

[Guest]

Awesome work Cashen! Sadly, I think I broke my scroll wheel, and maybe google chrome too.

[Cashen]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your mission reports, as there was a clear procession from early orbital flights to planetary landings and space stations (a la Mercury->Gemini->Apollo->Skylab).

Nice use of the FusTek Station Parts Expansion, too

Thanks! I hadn't gone into it with a plan like that but it kind of happened that way. It was kind of a new beginning for me since, as I said in the first post, I'd been spoiled with MechJeb for a while and wanted to try things the hard way. So it was a good experience for me and I enjoyed the learning curve.

I really enjoyed the later missions. Resource gathering and processing is a particular fascination with mine and future projects will probably revolve around that (ala Kethane).

I'm wondering if my station was too large with too many parts and that's what caused my FPS issues? Or if it's the FusTek parts in particular that cause that.

[sumghai]

I'm wondering if my station was too large with too many parts and that's what caused my FPS issues? Or if it's the FusTek parts in particular that cause that.

I suspect it's mostly part count, and a bit to do with the FusTek parts.

My own KSS consists of over 19 Karmony-sized modules, each with between two and six docking ports. Add to that a large number of B9 lights, docking struts, a large fuel depot and an extensive truss backbone, and my parts count is around 200~300+. And that's not counting the KES spacecraft(s) I use to ferry Kerbonauts to and from the station - it results in a rather agonizing slide show even on a PC powerful enough to do complex COMSOL simulations.

The parts themselves aren't officially made by fusty, but by myself (he gave me his blessing to expand upon his work). I did my best to reverse-engineer fusty's original Karmony modules and optimize model meshes, and while most people don't have complaints, I do get the occasional report from users experiencing lag. Of course, you could always try the FusTek Station Parts Expansion 0.02.2a DEV BUILD, which has some minor performance fixes.

[Guest]

I'm wondering if my station was too large with too many parts and that's what caused my FPS issues? Or if it's the FusTek parts in particular that cause that.

Cashen, have you tried shutting off the lights on your space station to see if your framerate goes up? The lights force the game engine to produce reflections and shadows. More parts = more reflections = more work for your graphics card.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Otis
spelling

[Cashen]

Cashen, have you tried shutting off the lights on your space station to see if your framerate goes up? The lights force the game engine to produce reflections and shadows. More parts = more reflections = more work for your graphics card.

I thought of that this morning actually. It wasn't so much the lighting and shadows, but I was trying to count in my head how many parts the station actualy was. "It can't be that many," I thought, "There was only like 12 FusTek modules!" But then I realized each FusTek module had 12 of those little onmi lights on it.

So yeah, it was a lot. That's probably it. Unfortunately I deleted the station accidentally as I mentioned in a previous post. But I think in the future, in addition to keeping my stations smaller and purely functional (instead of making them big for the sake of looking awesome), I'll avoid using lights. Generally all my spacecraft have lights next to their docking ports so I can do night docking no problem even if the station has no lights.

EDIT: After seeing the new ASAS preview on the KSP Facebook page, I am definitely waiting for 0.21 before I start things over again. That is freaking awesome.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Cashen